The Brit's finially did it

[PTsideshow]

British team smashes steam car record
The 25ft-long British Steam Car reached an average speed of 139.843mph on two runs over a measured mile at the Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The vehicle has been nicknamed the "fastest kettle in the world".

The timing beat the previous record of 127mph set by American Fred Marriott in a Stanley steam car at the Daytona Beach Road Course in 1906.

Mr Marriott's timing was the longest-standing officially-recognised land speed record but it was beaten by the British team, based in Lymington, Hampshire, with Charles Burnett III at the wheel.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090825/tuk-british-team-smashes-steam-car-recor-dba1618.html

 

[No1_sonuk]

Did you see the bit that said the "car" weighs 3 tonnes!?!
That's an awful lot of weight to be throwing across a desert at 150+ (one of the runs).

[sbwhart]

Did you see the bit that said the "car" weighs 3 tonnes!?!
That's an awful lot of weight to be throwing across a desert at 150+ (one of the runs).

How much of the 3 tonnes was coal 

Stew

[bogstandard]

So looking at it, it has taken 103 years to raise the speed by 13MPH, about a 10% increase.

Not really an earth shattering project.

I reckon that if they took the original design, stuck decent tyres on it, maybe a more efficient boiler, and they could have done it on a much smaller budget.

To me that looks like modern technology being worse than a relic from the past, and as such a total and disasterous failure, and nothing to be proud of.

Bogs

[Darren]

Judging by how hard it is to get something as small as a motor bike to achieve an extra 1mph I'd have to say I'm impressed they could do this with steam.

But 13mph at those speeds with that weight is outstanding.

140mph is quite some ground speed, having done this myself I found 130 easy, 140 was a far cry from 130 yet it's only 10mph difference.
My personal fastest was 165 and to be honest I had to leave my brain at home just to be able to do it. You completely loose all sense of everything at those speeds.

The Japs with all their tec and resources spent many years getting a small 400kg missile to 180mph and are still trying to crack the 200 barrier after 10yrs of trying. Though I believe that has finally been done now.

But to do this in a 3 ton truck with steam...well, I take my hat off to them.....

[chuck foster]

i used to be a crew member on a alcohol funny car, it would go 230 mph in 6 seconds flat. 
we worked on that car ALL summer trying to go faster, we spent close to 100 grand that summer and it wouldn't go any faster or quicker.
the next summer we bought a new car 175 grand and the best it ran was 5.90 seconds at about 238 mph.
what i,m trying to say is IT COST ALLOT OF MONEY TO GO A LITTLE BIT FASTER.

i don't miss the car at all, but it was fun at the time.

chuck

[John Hill]

Not really an earth shattering project.

I reckon that if they took the original design, stuck decent tyres on it, maybe a more efficient boiler, and they could have done it on a much smaller budget.

To me that looks like modern technology being worse than a relic from the past, and as such a total and disasterous failure, and nothing to be proud of.

Bogs

However Bogs I expect the 1906 effort was near the peak for that technology whereas, hopefully, the 2009 effort represents a few advances in techniques that are still in their infancy.

[NickG]

Yeah, I wasn't too impressed either considering the previous record holder was basically a stanley steamer - and that had proper pistons and a flywheel, none of this steam turbine malarky!

[PTsideshow]

Well it wasn't very high on the news blip meter, as not so much as a yawn over here were it happened!

[Baldrocker]

I reckon that if they took the original design, stuck decent tyres on it, maybe a more efficient boiler, and they could have done it on a much smaller budget

I'm with Bogs on that

and that had proper pistons and a flywheel

Too true lets compare apples with apples not apples with oranges.
BR